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for larger version       Beachcomber Speaking of the parade, Mayor Mike Bloomberg never showed up. Many locals say that he was angry that Rockaway people would snub him for not responding to a plea for money to complete the planned YMCA on Beach 73 Street. His office said that he never planned to attend. However, he has attended every year since he has been in office. Why not this year? Last week, the Mayor's Community Assistance Unit called The Wave to say that they were sending along a photo of the Mayor at Gracie Mansion, welcoming Irish parade organizers from all over the city. I asked the woman who called about the Mayor's non-appearance at Rockaway. She chuckled, but would not respond. Don't hold your breath awaiting the reopening of the abandoned Long Island Railroad White Pot Junction line, despite what Lew Simon and others say. Hopes for a plan soared when the MTA chief made a brief statement about the possibility, but he was speaking about the agency's fifty-year plan when he said it. That puts the reactivation of the line, a move that would cut travel time to Manhattan in half, at about 2058. Those who are now ten years old or so might well get to enjoy that - or, perhaps their children. Census Bureau workers are spreading out over the country, interviewing about 100,000 heads-of-household for the annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Monthly Current Population Survey. Those households chosen at random for the survey will receive letters from the bureau director. Some will be interviewed in person, others by telephone. The bureau says it has been doing this since 1942, but it is not clear whether or not any Rockaway people will be involved. Congressman Anthony Weiner wants the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to put a hold on its investigation of former New York Yankee pitcher Roger Clemens, who reportedly used steroids provided by Breezy Point resident Brian McNamee and then lied about it to Congress. It's not that our Representative likes Clemens that much, but because he thinks the FBI has better things to do with its time than investigate drug use among athletes. "I'm a lifelong Mets fan," Weiner said. "I have no dog in this fight except my concern the way [the FBI's] resources are being stretched." Governor Eliot Spitzer had signed into law the bill that would allow all present city teachers to retire at age 55 with 25 years of service. Those who are interested will have to kick in an additional 1.85 percent of their salary to opt into the plan. Beginning on February 27, the day the bill was signed, teachers have a one-time-only 180 day window to buy into the retirement plan. That makes the final date sometime at the end of August, just prior to the start of the next school year. The additional contribution will continue until the teacher completes 25 years of service, but it still sounds like a good deal. Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who really is a Democrat in Republican clothing, always spouts off about how bipartisan he is when it comes to politics. Recently, however, he gave $500,000 to Joe Bruno and the state Republicans to assist the party in its fight to keep control of the State Senate. Right now, the party holds a one-seat lead. Bloomberg said that he gave the party the money because the "upstate Republicans" always help the city when that help is needed. "They repeatedly stick their neck out for the city," he said. He pointed to a couple of issues in which the Senate Republicans helped the city, including picking up the tab for paying off Municipal Assistance Bonds; increasing the charter school cap to 200 from 100; giving the city 50 of those schools; and voting to approve the west side stadium, should the city have been awarded the Olympic Games (which it was not). You'd have thought that Oprah would have learned a lesson about pushing books that turned out to be a hoax. She obviously did not. She got stung again this week for pushing on her viewers a book entitled "Love and Consequences," which is a tale of the life and redemption of a Los Angeles street gang member. Supposedly, the book was written by a gang member named Margaret Jones, who turned out to be Margaret Seltzer, a valley girl who was never on the mean streets of that city.
The Queens Public Library is looking for an instructor for its new adolescent literacy class that it will run in Far Rockaway. The program will serve teens aged 16- to 24- years-of-age who are reading below the sixth grade level. Classes begin March 31, and anybody with a BA and two years of experience should contact the library.
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